(CNSNews.com) – The Boy Scouts of America announced Monday that it is changing its “adult leadership standards policy” to no longer deny membership to homosexuals.
“As a result of the rapid changes in society and increasing legal challenges at the federal, state, and local levels, on Friday, July 10, the Boy Scouts of America Executive Committee adopted a resolution amending the adult leadership standards policy. The resolution was unanimously adopted by those present and voting,” BSA announced on its website.
“This resolution will allow chartered organizations to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation, continuing Scouting’s longstanding policy of chartered organizations selecting their leaders. The National Executive Board will meet to ratify this resolution on Monday, July 27,” it added.
The new policy will allow Scout members and parents “to select local units, chartered to organizations with similar beliefs, that best meet the needs of their families.”
“This change would also respect the right of religious chartered organizations to continue to choose adult leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own. The 2013 youth membership policy will not be affected and remains unchanged,” BSA said.
BSA was challenged on its policy of banning gays from leadership 15 years ago, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its favor at the time. However, BSA fears that if the policy were challenged again, the same court might not rule the same way, given its recent ruling on same-sex marriage, among other things.
In Boy Scouts of America v. Dale - which was decided on June 28, 2000 – James Dale, an assistant scout master in New Jersey, had his membership revoked when it was revealed that he was homosexual and a gay rights advocate. He sued in New Jersey Superior Court, alleging that he had been discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation in places of public accommodation.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “the Boy Scouts have a constitutional right to exclude gay members, because opposition to homosexuality is part of the organization’s ‘expressive message,’” the New York Times reported in an article on June 29, 2000.
Then Chief Justice William Rehnquist said at the time that the court did not intend to approve or disapprove of the group’s view on homosexuality, but “the First Amendment’s protection for freedom of association meant the state could not compel” BSA “‘to accept members where such acceptance would derogate from the organization’s expressive message,’” the Times reported.
If the case were litigated today, “it would almost certainly lose,” the Boy Scouts of America said on its website on Monday. “Dale was a narrow 5-4 decision that balanced the government’s interest in protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation and the BSA’s right protected by the First Amendment to select its own leaders.”
